Dept. of Ag offers treatment for hemlocks

July 24, 2014

CHARLES TOWN - The West Virginia Department of Agriculture's Plant Industries Division wants to know what's bugging your plants and is offering treatment for landowners whose hemlock trees are being destroyed by the hemlock woolly adelgid.

According to Kristen Carrington, plant industries division program specialist, the non-native and invasive hemlock woolly adelgid made its first appearance in the United States in West Virginia.

"They were first found in West Virginia in 1992, and a lot of the early sightings were in the Eastern Panhandle and eastern counties of the state," Carrington said. "The insects are originally from Asia, so it probably came over to the U.S. hiding in shipping materials."

Article Photos

Map courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Agriculture

A map shows the migration of the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive pest that destroys hemlock trees, across the state since the insect’s discovery in 1992.

Although the hemlock woolly adelgid was first spotted in Hampshire, Hardy, Grant and Pendleton counties in 1992, the Department of Agriculture has tracked the pest's westward spread across the state.

"(The hemlock woolly adelgid) is moving because its food sources, the Eastern and Carolina Hemlock trees, are all used up. In Greenland Gap, the hemlocks are completely dead, and most of the hemlocks in the Eastern Panhandle have died. Birds can also carry the insects on their wings and in their feathers, and can drop them in a new location," Carrington said.

The hemlock woolly adelgid feeds on the hemlock trees' starch reserves, which reduces the trees' ability to grow and produce new shoots.

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture is accepting applications from landowners who wish to have their hemlock trees protected. There is a short list of eligibility requirements, including a canopy cover of hemlocks of more than 50 percent and a minimum treatment area of five acres in a county experiencing an infestation.

Eligible landowners can pay a deposit of $100 that will be applied to treatment costs.

"It's a cost-sharing grant from the U.S. Forest Service. The labor is free and the deposit covers 50 percent of the chemical pesticide cost. We've been doing this program for four years, and the most a landowner ever paid for treatment was just under $4,000, and this person had a large property and chose to treat all of their hemlock trees," Carrington said.

Carrington said specialists from the West Virginia Department of Agriculture will come out to the properties of those who applied to look at the hemlock trees. Landowners can choose which trees or what percentage of their trees to have treated.

A systemic insecticide that is absorbed by the trees' vascular system, similar to a tree's natural drawing of water from the ground, is used to stop the hemlock woolly adelgid. Treatments usually protect hemlock trees for four or five years.

The deadline to apply for tree treatment is Sept. 30. For more information, including the landowner requirements, or to obtain an application, call the Department of Agriculture's Charleston office at 304-558-2212.